Engagments
by QueenOfTheUniverse
Summary: What would happen if another guy came between Jacob and Angela? Read and find out! And don't forget to review too!


Note: This is after the Praetorians have been gotten rid of. Mark is just some random guy I stuck in here, he's not anyone from the show or anything. As for the bar, well, I needed a place where they could meet, kinda like CD's Bar And Grill on Walker, Texas Ranger. It's like a regular hang out, though here they're only there once. Also, the spaces between paragraphs indicate POV change between Jacob and Angela. Hope you understood all that! Anyway, enjoy!  
  
The Net: "Engagments"  
  
Jacob left the jewelry shop the same time Mark walked in. They said 'hi' and went on their separate ways. Jacob went back to his dorm room where he was in the middle of packing his stuff and thanking God that college was now finally over. He took the little black box out of his pocket and opened it. Inside was a beautiful diamond ring, and tomorrow night he was taking her out to dinner. That's when he planned to ask her. They were going to the best restaurant in town, The Victorian. He knew she'd say yes. She had to! He put the ring away and continued to pack.  
  
Angela was at the bar the next day where she met Jacob.  
"So, Jacob, are you going to tell me why we're going to The Victorian tonight?" she asked.  
"Nope. It's a secret." Jacob smiled with a sparkle in his eyes.  
"Hmmmm, you're gonna make me guess huh?"  
"Even if you guess right, I won't tell you one way or the other."  
Knowing that it would be something good, since it was coming from him, she said with a smile on her face, "Oh darn. I guess I'll just have to wait then." "Don't worry Angel, it will be worth the wait."  
  
Jacob just loved talking to Angela. Just being with her, in the same room, filled his heart with a certain joy that he'd never known before.  
"ANGEL! There you are! I've been looking all over for you!" Mark came over and pulled Angela to the center of the room. "Everyone, may I have your attention please!" Everyone in the room turned to face him. "I have a proposal to make, to my special Angel here." Jacob cringed. Mark had stolen his nick name for Angela. "So, here goes, Angel, marry me?" David pulled out a little black box that contained an engagement ring. Angela's hands went to her mouth and Jacob's heart pounded. She gasped, and said yes. The crowd cheered and Jacob's heart broke into a million little pieces. Quickly he turned and stumbled out of the room and into the bright sunlight. Up until now, he'd had no reason to hate Mark. True, he knew Mark liked Angela, he just never thought it would go this far!  
  
Angela turned from the crowd around her to see Jacob leave. She wanted to go to him but the crowd wouldn't let her. She turned back to Mark who was smiling from ear to ear. She smiled too. If Jacob had been there he'd notice something was wrong. Her smile suddenly wasn't true. He'd know. He was her best friend. She wanted him to say this engagement was OK. If he said no she wouldn't go through with it. But he had left so abruptly without even saying goodbye to her. Angela almost felt like crying when she should be happy.  
Why had he left? She wondered. Was there some important thing he had to do? Or was there something more?  
  
Jacob ran back to his dorm room and finally finished packing. He lugged his bags and boxes out to his car. When he was done he went back to the room for anything he had left behind. He saw a small black box with something glittering in it on the floor. He slowly picked it up to see what it was. It was the engagement ring he had bought the day before. It seemed to scream a happiness he would never know. Today, he would find a new home for the ring. Now, never hoping to return to where she lived, he left his dorm. He loved her too much to stay.  
  
Mark had already left the bar a half hour ago, leaving Angela sitting  
there, not knowing what to do, and still wondering why Jacob had left  
all of a sudden. Her thoughts fell on comparing Mark and Jacob.  
Mark liked to be the highlight of everything. He also had tons of money from his father and he could be very snobby at times. She knew he wanted her as a girlfriend, well fiancé now, soon to be wife. He'd shown it almost right from the very moment when they'd first met. He was always complimenting her, and wanting to buy her things. Sometimes she felt he was going a little overboard, but he liked being that way and there seemed to be no way of stopping him. He also therefore liked taking her out to dinner at the most expensive restaurants around. And though she did enjoy them on occasion, he never liked anything else. Jacob, on the other hand, didn't want to be the highlight of everything, though if someone else put him there, and it didn't last long then it was OK. He was also nice to just about everyone he met. She didn't know what he thought of her, besides as a very good friend. Though Jacob always had this quiet way of admiring her, he hardly ever said anything directly to her out loud nor did he buy her tons of unnecessary things, but she could read it in his eyes; Deep blue pools of eyes she felt like she could stare into forever, given the chance. They'd hung out together almost everyday, and had gone out to dinner or lunch on a number of occasions, though never anything as upscale as The Victorian. He had almost no money to his name whatsoever. So from this she knew, whatever he had hidden up his sleeve for tonight must be something special. They were both so different, so much opposites. After debating the issue, she knew what must be done. She had to go see her best friend. She went to Jacob's dorm room, hoping to find him there, still packing. The place was empty except for a small black velvet box. She picked it up and stared at it. It was as empty as the room. Taking it with her, she left.  
Her heart ached to see him already. And then, there he was standing a few feet away from her. He was talking to someone. She couldn't tell who because of a huge bush that was in the way.  
"Look, I'm not asking much. Just promise me you'll take real good care of her," Jacob was saying.  
"Sure I will," Mark answered.  
Jacob turned and walked away as the skies suddenly opened up and rain began to pour down on them, in a million tiny droplets. Angela moved so that she could see Mark. She watched him smile to himself as she got soaked by the rain. She didn't care about getting wet. Jacob was leaving! He didn't even need to say it. She just knew. The way he had asked Mark to take care of her, the way he had slowly turned around and slowly walked away, they had said more to her than anything in the world. He didn't want to go. She didn't want him to leave either. He was her best friend, or was he more than that? The thought came up so quickly. Maybe she really did care more about him than she had thought. But she couldn't think about that now. She was engaged to someone else. She had to remember that. There was no choosing between them. Mark had already asked, and she'd said yes. Even so, she still wanted to see Jacob. She wanted to hear him say he was OK with her marrying Mark because maybe his leaving the bar so fast meant that he wasn't OK with it.  
"Angel, what are you doing here? You're getting soaked!" Mark said, upon finding her out in the rain.  
She looked up at him. "Mark, was that Jacob?"  
"Oh yeah! He just left. Said he had one more stop to make before he's outta this place for good."  
"Did he say where he's going?"  
"Don't worry, he's not going to see you!" His quick, sharp words stung her heart a bit, and her eyes sprang full of salty water, though through the rain he couldn't tell. "Now, I was thinking we could do something tonight, you know, to celebrate." He took her hand and looked down at her ring, praising himself for buying such an expensive ring.  
"No. Jacob and I had a date tonight at The Victorian and I don't intend on breaking it."  
"Jacob? But you're engaged to me now, not him. Besides, he's leaving. So, where shall we go? I'll take you to The Victorian."  
"NO! Look, I'll see you later. I've got to find Jacob!" Angela ran off.  
  
Jacob stood on the bridge overlooking the small river. In his hand was the ring. All he wanted to do was throw it in the water and get away from this place. He'd probably get into an accident somewhere out on the road, but he didn't care. There was no use in caring anymore. He pulled his arm back to throw the ring when he felt someone grab his hand.  
"Jacob don't..."  
No! his mind screamed. He hadn't wanted to see her again for fear his heart would break all over again.  
"No," he said out loud. He couldn't bear to look at her as the rain continued to come down in sheets. He knew full well that it was Angela, his Angel no longer. "Angel, I mean Angela, please, just go away and leave me alone."  
"It's OK, Jacob, I'll always be YOUR Angel. I mean it Jacob. I love you."  
He turned around and his eyes met hers. "Angel," he whispered. He found himself wrapping his arms around her, giving her a warm hug. "I love you too." Angela only held onto him tighter. "But, can I ask you something?"  
"What?" She asked, letting go of him.  
"What about Mark? And how did you find me here?"  
Angela thought about it for a few minutes. "Anytime something's wrong Jacob, you come here. I knew something was wrong the way I've seen you acting today ever since he proposed.  
"Oh. But, when did you see me?" "When you left the bar, and then again not that long ago, talking to Mark"  
"Wait, you saw that?"  
"Yeah, I didn't hear everything you said though."  
"Oh. So what about Mark then?"  
  
"Well, I knew something was wrong and that you were going to leave me.  
And I didn't want that. Mark wanted to take me out to dinner tonight  
to celebrate our engagement, but I said no cause you and I had a date.  
Well, he got kinda mad at me, and basically said you didn't matter  
anymore cause I was engaged to him and not you. But see, you do  
matter, and if he wasn't going to accept you being in my life too,  
well, then he could just say goodbye to the both of us then."  
"Oh, I'm sorry Angel, for wanting to leave and all, I just..."  
"No, look, if I'd had a clear head about me when he asked, this wouldn't have happened. I mean, I was just so surprised, I didn't know what to say or anything."  
"It's OK, the whole thing is over now, we can just forget it ever happened."  
This time it was Angela who hugged him. And they didn't part until Mark's voice could be heard through the thick rain. "Get away from my fiance! If you want me to take care of her! Angel, come over here, you'll be safer with me."  
"That's 'Angela' to you!" she shouted to him. She took off the ring Mark had given her and handed it to Jacob. "I believe you were going to throw something earlier? How about this?"  
He took it from her and threw it with all of his might into the raging river below. Ignoring Mark's ranting and raving, Jacob turned back to her. He still held his own ring in his tightly clenched fist. "Angel, there's something I have to tell you..I..yesterday..well, I got you something...I was going to give it to you tonight..at dinner.but.well, I might as well ask you now..I don't think I could wait..after all that's happened.."  
"Go ahead.."  
"Angel, will you marry me?" He opened his hand to reveal the ring in his palm. The most beautiful ring she'd ever seen. On a golden band there was a diamond with a smaller fire blue spinal stone on one side and a topaz on the other, one signifying his birth month, and the other the month she was born in.  
Once again, for the second time that day, her hands went to her mouth in surprise. She gasped. "Jacob, it's beautiful! I love it! Of course you know I'll say yes! And this time I know what I'm doing!"  
Jacob slipped the ring on her finger.  
"Oh my God, you know I never even suspected..This is.this is.wow! I don't know what to say!" She looked up at him, into his deep blue eyes and before she knew what was happening, their lips met in a slow soft kiss. When they pulled apart, Jacob just held her there in his arms, thankful that he hadn't left after all. "Angel, I think we're going to have to skip The Victorian tonight. Our reservations were for half an hour ago. They've probably already been given away to someone else. I'm sorry." he whispered in her ear. "That's OK. I don't mind. We're both totally soaked, and right now I just want to go home with you," she whispered back. 


End file.
